Lackland trainer bragged of sex, witnesses say

Updated 3:39 pm, Friday, June 29, 2012

Staff Sgt. Craig LeBlanc walks, on his way for an evidentiary hearing involving his part in inappropriate sexual relations with female airmen.Thursday, June 28, 2012.

Staff Sgt. Craig LeBlanc walks, on his way for an evidentiary hearing involving his part in inappropriate sexual relations with female airmen.Thursday, June 28, 2012.

Photo: BOB OWEN, San Antonio Express-News

Lackland trainer bragged of sex, witnesses say

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Air Force Staff Sgt. Craig LeBlanc boasted to a colleague that he'd had sex with a trainee in a supply room before she left for technical training school, according to testimony at Thursday's evidentiary hearing against LeBlanc, one of 12 instructors under investigation at Lackland for illicit sexual relationships with trainees.

Beck testified as part of the Article 32 hearing against LeBlanc, who is charged with aggravated sexual assault, obstruction of justice, adultery, violating a no-contact order, absence without leave and making a false official statement.

An Article 32 hearing, which is similar to a grand jury, can be the first step to a court-martial. If LeBlanc is ultimately found guilty, he could be sentenced to up to 45 years in prison.

Beck was the first to testify Thursday, after the defense and prosecution wrangled over whether LeBlanc's current live-in girlfriend, who is also a former trainee, could be compelled to testify.

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Kasey Koehler, who is in the Ohio National Guard but not currently on active duty, ultimately agreed to testify, and did so after more than three hours of testimony from one of LeBlanc's two victims, an airman first class now based in Guam.

LeBlanc is under investigation at Lackland for illicit sexual relationships with trainees. The latest two trainers were charged Tuesday; six so far could face court-martial.

The prosecution spent a good deal of time establishing the control trainers have over recruits during 8½ weeks of boot camp and whether they still have that control between the Friday when they graduate and early Monday morning when they leave Lackland.

The Air Force prohibits any kind of romantic relationship between training instructors and students.

LeBlanc is accused of the sexual misconduct with a trainee after she'd graduated but before she'd left the base.

“You're not safe until you get to tech school,” said Tech. Sgt. Benjamin Sklenar, who, like Beck, went to military officials after hearing rumors about LeBlanc and other military training instructors (MTIs) with the 331st.

“We didn't have a choice,” she said. “Nothing an MTI says is with a question mark.”

It always was made abundantly clear, she said, that not following an order would have an adverse effect on a recruit's career in the Air Force.

She testified that LeBlanc and another military trainer, Staff Sgt. Kwinton Estacio, urged her and another recruit to meet them in the supply room. The pair “pinky swore” that they wouldn't have sex with the men.

Estacio's Article 32 hearing was June 2; no decision has been announced by the Air Force on whether a trial will be ordered in his case.

LeBlanc's civilian defense attorney, Joseph Jordan, tried to begin his questioning by asking her what kind of men she was attracted to, but the prosecution successfully objected. Later, he asked her what kind of panties she was wearing and whether she was aroused.

“Did it make you feel good?” he asked.

“It was uncomfortable,” she replied. After leaving the supply room, she went straight to the bus stop, she testified, where, she said she felt “blank.”

Jordan also asked about the term “rape.”

“I never put that word to it,” she said, until after she was questioned by investigators.

Koehler, who was not in LeBlanc's training unit, first denied to investigators that she had a sexual relationship with him, but admitted Thursday that she had lied.

But she continued to insist she did not begin having sex with him until after she had graduated.

Koehler said she was at LeBlanc's house when he, Estacio and another instructor, who has admitted to involvement with 10 women, schemed to hide their actions from investigators.

Prosecutors worked to show that Koehler has reason to minimize the gravity of LeBlanc's actions.

She told prosecutors she knew he was married but was in love with him and wanted to marry and have children with him; so she was upset to find “flirty” texts from the airman he's accused of sexually assaulting.